PART of a controversial plan for a 6,000-home garden village will be heard before a planning inspector, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Fareham Borough Council has said that is has taken too long to determine a plan for 72 new luxury homes at Sawmills Industrial Park just south of Wickham because the applicant did not engage with them.

The plan forms part of a proposed 6,000-home development at Welborne garden village.

Plans put forward by BST Warehouses, which own around one per cent of the required land for the proposed development, would see the construction of two one-bed, 33 two-bed, 20 three-bed and 17 four-bed homes.

Fareham Borough Council said that officers had been attempting to work with the applicant but BST had lodged an appeal against the Authority’s non-determination of the application so they no longer had the ability to make a decision on it.

The spokesperson added: “This will now be done by a planning inspector.”

“However, on Wednesday, February 21, we will be asking the committee to resolve as to what they would have done had they had the opportunity to determine the application.

“Officers would have recommended the scheme, as it is currently submitted, for refusal.”

The developers of Welborne, Buckland Development who own 96 per cent of the land required for the proposed garden village have said that the plan for the new homes was included in the Welborne plan of 6,000 homes but added that they had no control over the BST application as it was not part of their own.

A spokesperson for the Planning Inspectorate, added: “We are now in the process of allocating an inspector.

“Once this is done, we will write to the appellant with a ‘start letter’ and set out details of the timetable and procedure.”

Councillor Shaun Cunningham, who represents Portchester East on the council said: “Welborne has been delayed for a number of years now so we should be able to bring this development forward.

“The developer is refusing to pay a contribution to the wider consultation of Welborne.

“Here, we have the developer that wants to bring forward a brownfield site that we are not agreeing to yet we are agreeing to hundreds of homes on greenfield sites in Warsash.”